Design, Architecture, Gardens, Southern California Living

ICFF 2010: Time for some color -- lots of color

May 18, 2010 | 6:03
am

When you tire of running late in English, you can run late in
French, Russian or Arabic.

Qlocktwo, part of a color craze at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York, tells time
with words instead of numerals. Andreas Funk and Marco Biegert designed the clock, pictured above, with a removable acrylic panel so you can swap out colors or languages. The LED back light has a sensor to vary brightness based on
conditions in the room.

Albers was a student of the Bauhaus who went on to lead the school’s glass workshop in the 1920s. Later he led the art school at Yale.

In reissuing the tables, Ameico replaced his glass tabletops in favor of lacquered acrylic, which is framed in white oak.

At the Bernhardt booth, the Corvo chair by Noe Duchaufour-Lawrance echoed two trends: happy color and an emphasis on craftsmanship. With some consumers still reluctant to invest in quality furniture, many manufacturers have been pushing the craftsperson and the story behind the piece to differentiate their collections from mass-market, machine-made imports.

Bernhardt produced a five-minute film documenting how the Corvo chair’s shapely contours were impossible to create with modern computer-numeric controlled machines, the CNC that has become industry standard. The Corvo ultimately was constructed by hand using 15 tools to carve and finish the wood. The traditional silhouette (photo after the jump) framed in American
walnut, was paired with seats in purple, sky blue and lime green.

Keep reading to see other designs that deployed bright hues with varying degrees of success ...

The Corvo chairs from Bernhardt. Credit: Michael Nagle / For The Times

The Cnnct chair by Jacob Nitz, who explained the named by saying that "vowels are so passe." (Don't worry, he was joking.) Brightly painted sheet metal connects to legs in walnut or maple. Credit: Amirite

Photo: Step from Design House Stockholm. The concept behind Karl Malmvall’s new piece: With so much stuff crammed into closets, why not buy a functional stepladder that good enough to leave out? His design looks like steel but is made of carved wood finished in high-gloss red, black or white. It folds to 2 inches thick and comes with a peg to hang on the wall, where it can pop as a graphic element or, if your wall color is just right, disappear into the background. Credit: Michael Nagle / For The Times